Fact of the day

At the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Fritz Thiedemann - who had commanded a German cavalry unit during World War Two before being captured towards the end and interned in a Russian prison camp - created a unique piece of history. The farmer's son earned bronze medals in both individual show jumping and team dressage to become the only rider in Olympic history to win medals in two equestrian disciplines at the same Games. He went on to gold medals in team jumping at the 1956 Olympics, when the equestrian events were held in Stockholm, and Rome 1960. The Thiedemann rein is named after him.

February 18 - The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has extended its deal with Polytan|STI, which will see the sports surfaces manufacturer continue as its Preferred Pitch Supplier through to 2016.

The original agreement dates back to the men's Hockey World Cup in February 2010 when Polytan|STI installed three surfaces at the Mayor Dhyan Chand National Stadium in Delhi, which was also the venue for the Commonwealth Games later that year.

The firm's Poligras surfaces feature in many of hockey's top tier events, including the Olympics, Champions Trophy tournaments and World Cups.

Most recently, it was used during the London 2012 Games when the iconic blue-coloured fields of the Riverbank Arena played a pivotal role in making the hockey tournament one of the most successful and talked-about in the sport's history.

"We are very happy to extend what has been a highly successful partnership to this date, and look forward to cooperating even more extensively with Polytan|STI over the coming years," FIH President Leandro Negre said.

"The blue pitch in London was an absolute highlight of the Olympic Games, and we are excited to see which new heights our partnership will take us to during the upcoming years."

Polytan|STI also supplies surfaces to other sports including tennis, rugby, athletics, football and golf.

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Samuel Bacharach will be one of the key speakers at The Academy in Lausanne in May where his theme will be leadership, and the skills necessary to realise results. But most importantly he will explain how it's not enough for leaders to just to come up with a great idea and that vision without organisation and execution is just hallucination. Mike Rowbottom reports.